8000 Ogoni cases go to Nigeria's hu

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Subject: Re: 8000 Ogoni cases go to Nigeria's human rights panel

Perhaps some day TOTAL will be found guilty of direct and indirect
violations of human rights and obliged to remunerate the victims in a
human rights damage settlement involving billions of dollars, equal to
and more than the sum of what they have already invested in the
regime-partnered project. Since the world knows well enough what's going
on, anything less than that is sheer hypocrisy. Is Burma headed to a
Mandela turn the page and forget the past, heal the wounds solution, or
more on the lines of what's now going down in Nigeria. Something to
think about. Or will TOTAL and the FRench try to broker a deal in their
best interests, a peace and profits deal. Who knows? In any case, the
Nigerian example should not be overlooked as a sign of the
times.Remember, apart from Shell, Nigerian drug gangs were high on the
list of world drug traffickers.
ds
MOSOP International Secretariat wrote:> 
>          Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP)
> 
>     27 Odu Street, Ogbunabali, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
> 
>        Ph/fax (+234) 84 230 250 e-mail: mosop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> 
> 
>                     Press release 13th August 1999
> 
>            MOSOP Files 8,000 cases before Human Rights Panel
> 
> The Nigerian Human Rights group MOSOP, today filed a massive record of
> human rights abuses which have occurred in the south western region of
> Ogoni since 1990. The submission includes testimony of over 3000
> serious incidents, primarily at the hands of the Rivers State Internal
> Security Task Force which occupied Ogoni between 1994 and 1998.
> 
> The submission to the "Oputu Panel" which is to look into human rights
> abuses under Nigeria's military governments since 1984 compliments
> earlier submissions for the reversal of verdicts against nine Ogoni
> activists hanged in 1995, which included MOSOP president Ken Saro Wiwa
> for which the chambers of Chief Gani Fawehinmi has been retained. The
> submission also refers to the international observers (Michael
> Birmbaum -of The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales) and
> investigations by the United Nations (Report of the Fact Finding
> Mission of the Secretary General April 1996) which variously found
> serious fault with the trial of Saro Wiwa and other activists.
> 
> Speaking from Port Harcourt MOSOP Acting President said,
> 
> "Today MOSOP is putting the cost of freedom before the Nigerian
> people. The people of Ogoni have paid a heavy price for their
> resistance to oppression by military rulers."
> 
> "These Ogoni cases are a challenge to the Oputu panel and the justice
> system in Nigeria. If there cannot be justice for such flagrant cases
> of abuse how can we expect to find justice for any Nigerian citizen?"
> 
> " We are asking the Panel to recognise the degree to which the
> government of General Abacha instituted a reign of terror against a
> peaceful population. This was not a case of neglect. The record we
> present today is one of soldiers shooting law abiding citizens,
> looting property, detaining individuals at will, and torturing those
> it suspected of being MOSOP activists."
> 
> The MOSOP record of incidents in Ogoni includes graphic descriptions
> of incidents where soldiers acted with complete disregard for even the
> most basic rights.
> 
> One incident describes how a senior military officer personally
> ordered the shooting to death of a 14 year disabled boy at point blank
> rage. Other reports detail the numerous raids on Ogoni villages in
> which villagers were randomly shot, raped and assaulted.
> 
> The sacking of 10 Ogoni villages who are still homeless till date in
> the Ban-Ogoi area by Nigerian troops is also highlighted as well as
> the incident in which Ogoni residents at the Port Harcourt Water front
> were sacked. Government’s inquiry report dismissing suggestion
> of ethnic clashes and describing the incident as a well organized
> military raid in defenseless Ogoni residents are also catalogued.
> 
> Commenting on action that the panel can take Mr Mitee said,
> 
> "We believe that it is morally right that this panel at least pays a
> visit to Ogoni to see some of those who have survived the abuse which
> took place in our communities."
> 
> "It is also time for the Nigerian government to recognise that the
> Ogoni case is different. Nowhere else in Nigeria did the government
> set out to terrorise an entire law abiding population. "
> 
> "We hope that this panel will recognise the seriousness of the
> unaddresssed abuses and make the strongest possible recommendations to
> President Obasanjo. Those who have suffered under the last regime have
> little reason for confidence in law and order. We believe that a just
> response is essential to restoring peace to our country."
> 
> 
> 
> While presenting the report in two large packs to the Commission in
> Abuja, the Vice President of MOSOP, Dr. Olua Kamalu urged the
> commission to arrange for hearings in Bori to enable thousands of
> Ogoni petitioners to testify before it as it will be practically
> impossible for us to travel to Abuja and Lagos to make our cases.
> Also, he presented a request before the panel to waive the requirement
> of submitting 10 copies of each abuse case to the Commission. Adding
> that the peasant economy of Ogoni will collapse if we are to submit 10
> copies of each of the over 7,000 copies presently collated.
> 
> Also speaking on the issue, the MOSOP President, Mr. Ledum Mitee said
> "the volume of Ogoni petitions only confirms the well known fact: that
> under military rule especially under Abacha’s, the Ogoni people
> bore the brunt of the worst forms of human and environmental rights
> abuses in Nigeria to the extent that we became the standard by which
> human rights abuse in the country was measured. The Ogoni case will
> present probably the stiffest test for the Commission and the country
> as a whole."
> 
> Editor's Notes
> 
> MOSOP is the campaign organization representing the people of Ogoni,
> living in the south western region of the Niger Delta. Since 1990
> MOSOP has campaigned for the environmental and human rights of the
> Ogoni people after devastating effects from oil exploitation by the
> Nigerian government and multinational oil operator Royal Dutch Shell.
> 
> For further information please contact:
> 
> Bari ara Kpalap, MOSOP Advocacy officer (+234) 84 230 250
> 
> Ledum Mitee Acting President MOSOP (+234) 84 232 609
> 
> London Lazarus Tamana/Chris Newsom (+44) 181 563 8614
> 
> (+44) 7887 504 014 mobile
> 
> Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) Nigeria,
> 27 Odu Street, Ogbunabali, Port Harcourt, Nigeria:
> Tel/ fax. [+234] 84 230 250 Tel.
> e-mail: mosop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> MOSOP International secretariat:
> Suite 5, 3 - 4 Albion Place, Galena Road, London W6 0LT, United
> Kingdom.
> Tel. (+44) (0)181 563 8614  Fax. (+44) (0)181 563 8615
> http://www.oneworld.org/mosop/
> e-mail: mosop@xxxxxxxxxx
> (c) Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People, 1999
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------
> 
> "Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues"
> Ken Saro-Wiwa, the gallows, November 10th 1995.
> 
> Ogoni is a land of half a million people in the Niger Delta region of
> Nigeria.  Since 1958, oil companies such as Shell have exploited
> Ogoni's oil wealth, while the Ogoni people have suffered economic
> deprivation, the environmental devastation of our land and the
> discriminatory policies of successive Nigerian governments.  The
> Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People demands economic
> justice, human rights - including the right to choose the use of our
> land and its resources - and to a future free from violence. MOSOP is
> the democratic voice of the Ogoni people.
> 
>